The Dark Rose Champion
by SevenDePiques
Summary: Sword and Shield: The new champion isn't sure about all this champion business, time to get away for a while!


Morgen stared at his opponent blankly, as the announcer blared over the stadium loud speaker, "Challenger Morgen has defeated the Unbeatable Champion Lee!"

The announcer continued on, but what they said was blocked by the roar of the crowd the ringing in Morgen's ears. He was acutely aware of the camera zooming in to capture his reaction to winning. He tried to smile but his face wouldn't move. He noted, somewhat detached from the situation that at the very least he looked a little cool. He wasn't crying, or hyperventilating, which is what he felt like doing.

Charles, his indeedee, tugged gently on the edge of his uniform and Morgen came back to the pitch with a start. Lee was making a speech now, and walking towards him. Lee put his hand on Morgen's shoulder as the hapless challenger tried to process what was happening.

"Believe in yourself and your partner pokemon and keep blasting ahead to the future we all hope to see! People of Galar a new champion is born right before your eyes. I can't wait to see what kind of a future he ushers in."

Then Lee was walking off the pitch, and Morgen was following, his hand covering his microphone. "What do you mean the new future! Lee, I'm not even certain about the present! With Champion Rose gone, won't it become a political position again?"

Lee said nothing until they were off the pitch. Then he stopped and turned to Morgen. "This region needs a fresh start after what Chairman Rose did. I failed to stop him but you didn't, the people can trust you, and after defeating me, there's no better person to be that fresh start."

"I wasn't supposed to beat you," Morgen said, the ringing in his ears was now accompanied by a tightness in his chest. He felt like he was being slowly strangled. "That's what unbeatable means."

"Buck up!" said Lee, "If you can get through the winner's interview there will be at least a month while the gym leaders and I decide what to do with Rose's company. You can go on vacation, come to terms with your new position and if you really hate it you can lose on purpose to the first challenger and leave."

Morgen glanced up and met Lee's stony face, "Not that I would expect that from any trainer I endorsed."

Grunting something like assent, Morgen shrugged past Lee, and headed to the locker room with Charles padding along behind. The indeedee was quiet, rushing off to fetch Morgen's bag as he let out the rest of his team. They were in pretty good shape all told, the battle hadn't been as tough as Morgen had thought.

Nymphora was the only casualty, the whimsicott passed out on the bench. Still, the official battles were safe enough and it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with a revive and a few potions. She trilled happily and went to raid Morgen's bag for an after battle treat while he saw to the rest of the team.

Since the interview was going to be broadcast on international television, Morgen took his time with his team. He put the shower on for Glial the gastrodon, and shone the armor of his falinks, Patter. The six members stood in a line and got out of the way smartly, on their best behavior for the important day.

Evanora, a clefable, wandered over to SirTopum who floated sulkily in a corner. The weezing hadn't been much use this match, and its smokestack hats only dribbled a thin trickle of steam. Morgen watched for a moment, making certain that Evanora had the other member of the team handled before seeing to his own clothing. It was serviceable dark fabric from top to bottom. The only thing Morgen took time to check was his hair, and how the leather jacket Piers had given him back in Spikesmuth.

Once everyone was ready, the team headed out for the interview. Morgen's anxiety had largely abated in the locker room, but he took a moment to steel himself before stepping into the bright light and flashing cameras. Interviewers closed in, only to maintain a respectable distance once their shins came into contact with the bristling shields of Patter. The stadium staff stepped in moments to help better control the crowd.

Not being able to invade his physical space however, only seemed to make the interviewers keener to invade his auditory space. Morgen navigated the best he could, asking Charles to translate when one of questions was aimed at one of the pokemon on the team.

Lee pushed in after a little while, and Morgen was grateful for what he thought was a rescue, until Lee brought him over to a gaggle of fans. Fortunately, according to magazine article one of his fathers had breathlessly read over the phone, Morgen's fans found his standoff-ish demeanor part of his charm. The fans were easier than the press, mostly they just wanted to talk to him and perhaps pat a pokemon or two.

Then it was all over and Morgen didn't know what to do. He couldn't go home, his fathers would be disgustingly proud of him and he wasn't sure he could take that. Lee had mentioned a vacation, and Morgen was old enough to travel on his own now.

"Hey R, any flights to Hoenn tonight?" he asked, leaning back against a wall in some forgotten hallway of the stadium.

The rotom in his phone hmmed, a bad habit they had picked up from his father, Elijah's, pokedex. Then cheerfully R said, "There is one more flight leaving for Hoenn today. If you call an air taxi to take you to the airport you can make it in time. I can book the tickets now if you like."

"Please," said Morgen. He shouldered his bag, and patted himself down to make sure he had his team and all his essentials. Then he jogged to the front counter of the stadium, breathlessly complained about having lost his PC box link, and got into a taxi with his new box link tucked in his bag.

It was a relief to be on the plane, watching the lights of Wyndon twinkle as they grew smaller and smaller. He pulled out his phone and sent a quick message to his uncle in the Hoenn region.

How soon can you get to Lilycove?

The answer was almost immediate, though it must have been stupidly late there.

Few hours, what's in Lilycove?

Morgen grinned, and filled his uncle in on his surprise visit, though he left out the part where he won the championships. There was precious little to do after that, and so he settled in his chair for some much needed rest.

It was early afternoon when he arrived in Lilycove. His uncle was waiting in arrivals with his gardevoir. His uncle broke out into a wide smile and swept across the airport to envelope Morgen in a hug. "Look at you! Visiting on your own like that. Come on, let's get you settled back on the train and then you can tell me why I warrant such a visit."

The gardevoir made a noise like icicles breaking and Seven winced. "Ah right, sorry. Promised Victor I'd buy him a map of the Galar region for coming to the airport. Then we'll get you settled."

Uncle Seven bombarded Morgen with questions about his team as they navigated the airport. They weren't questions about battles, but rather who liked what and how they got along. Morgen found it easy to warm to the subject, though he wondered if his uncle was purposefully not bringing up the championship match.

His uncle didn't bring it up for the trip back to the train either. Morgen was shocked to see how large the locomotive had grown, it had cars almost as far as he could see. "Your little steam engine still pull this thing?"

"It's a big steam engine, thank you very much," said Uncle Seven with a wink, ushering Morgen into his living car. "got a whole little town down by the end, they pitch in with helping run the train. Started as a summer internship program, one of Watson's last ideas before he stepped down. A lot of them refused to leave after."

Easily, Seven took Morgen's bag and stowed it in a cubby, gesturing for him to sit down. "You can let your pokemon out, let them explore, it's plenty safe around the train."

Morgen took a seat on the edge of his uncle's bunk and let out his team. None of them had been to Hoenn before except Patter, so Morgen told them to be back before dark. Patter looked as if they were going to stay behind but Morgen shooed them out. Then he turned to his uncle who was busying himself with the train schedule.

"You're not going to bring it up?"

"Bring what up?" Uncle Seven asked, setting his pen down.

"My championship win." Morgen said. "You must have known."

"Oh I know," agreed Seven, leaning back. He glanced up. "They're calling you The Dark Rose Champion even. For defeating the darkest day and all, but if you wanted to talk to me about it you would."

Irrationally Morgen felt irritation at his uncle's words. Didn't he care? Wasn't he proud? Then Morgen got a glimpse of Victor, the ever present psychic type outside the window tending to something, and felt a bit silly.

"I wanted to turn it down, like you did, but Lee trapped me into it. Being champion. He told me I couldn't let the Galar region down." Morgen said after a while.

"You could," said his uncle complacently, offering Morgen a soda from the small mini-fridge tucked under the table. He cracked his own and yawned. "I sure did when I turned down becoming the champion of Hoenn. You know what they called me for a while? The coward champion, or the unclaimed champion if they were being generous."

"Not anymore though," said Morgen sulkily, "and you didn't stop a national disaster."

"I thought that was mostly Lee's doing." said Seven.

"The papers got it wrong," replied Morgen, his tone getting progressively gloomer, "and that's an even bigger problem."

He set aside his drink and opened his bag, pulling out his own PC box link.

"I brought a link box for you," he explained as he retrieved the right pokeball, "but I wanted to show you this first. We better go outside."

Morgen led the way, hopping down from the train car, and striding out into the largest clearing he could spot. Seven started to follow him but Morgen held up a hand warning him back. Then he held the dream ball in the air - it had been a stupid choice in retrospect but it had been the first one he'd grabbed - and pressed the button.

Eternatus shot out with a great cry that rattled the train and caused its inhabitants to come pouring out. Victor materialized from somewhere around the side of the train, stepping in front of Seven protectively, his tattered skirt flapping in the wind kicked up by Eternatus's wings.

Morgen fought the urge to fall to his knees, like he had the first time he saw it. Even though he knew that this pokemon was under his control, its awesome power radiated out from it like a physical force. Slender deep purple bones, the colour of sunspots, held the radiating energy core, an unnaturally vibrant pink that matched the membranes stretching over the draconic skeleton in places.

Having spotted Victor, the legendary dragon geared up for a fight. Forcing his limbs back under his control, Morgen picked up the pokeball from where it had fallen from his nerveless fingers and recalled the monstrosity that hovered over the train.

Victor began to disperse the crowd as Seven ran over to Morgen. "You caught that thing?!"

Morgen cringed and waited for a lecture but Seven just hugged him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Morgen said stiffly.

Seven stepped back and frowned, "I saw your face when you let that thing out. You don't want to keep it do you?"

Biting his lip, Morgen shook his head, and found to his surprise, he was crying. Quietly Uncle Seven ushered him back into the train car and handed him a tissue. He waited for Morgen to calm before he said. "I'd talk to your dads about that. That thing looks a lot like the ultrabeasts found in the Alola region. They know some of the professors there."

Morgan sniffed and nodded, smiling weakly, "I knew coming here was the right choice."

Uncle Seven laughed, "Calling home would have been equally educational, but I hope now that you have an answer to at least one of your problems you aren't intending to head back so soon?."

"Yeah, yeah," replied Morgen, feeling better than he had in weeks. "I'm still staying for three weeks and to make up for it I'll even treat you to some Galar camp curry tonight."

His uncle's stomach gurgled, and the older man smiled. "It's a deal."


End file.
